The northern end of Adams county exploded. Dan went out to see the pit which must have been made. Now he felt the quaint, whimsical strength of the rejuvenated invalid—he could afford to watch the wheat fields suffering, with a casual eye, since he had suffered as they. But when he reached the front yard, there was nothing to see but a dark smother of old smoke in the north. He opened his mouth, relaxed, listening. At first it sounded like a storm, and then like a dream of Halloween; it was the same wail which had been resounding all day in the west, and now came in from the north and northeast as well, bound to come all the way this time. If the rebels advanced from the north, these Nationals would be driven off Oak Ridge, crushed between two tides of their enemies. They’d better retreat while they could, and start back to Emmetsburg or wherever they hailed from.

The smoke blew high, like a cover lifted from a hot dinner dish, and it exposed a sauce of brownish armies spreading in toward the Pennsylvania College grounds, seasoned with pimento flags. The other lonely, white-striped flags scuttled ahead into the village, nodding and hiding behind the barns. “Looky there,” a harsh duet ripped out, and Dan turned. Wagons had been rocking past, still hurrying up the slope on demoniac errands, but this wagon would go no farther. It had stopped in front of the Knouse gate … Mrs. Knouse’s little sign hung there swaying on its cord, saying No Tresspass to them and all their brothers … the drivers were standing up on the seat, hands grasping the front bows of the wagon-top, heads turned toward the northeast; then, saying no more, one of the men leaped down and seized the halters of the lead team. He wore a round, straw hat; he did not look at all like a soldier. The wagon swayed as the front axle turned to its limit—the teams brayed and struggled—they were brought about. The big ark went rumbling back down the turnpike, with the straw-hatted man clambering up over the tailboard, and a long whip crackling around the mules’ ears.